William Crawford

William Crawford (2 September 1722-11 June 1782) was a colonel of the Virginia militia during the American Revolutionary War who led the 1782 Crawford Expedition. Crawford was captured and burnt at the stake by the Native Americans after his defeat.

Biography
William Crawford was born on 2 September 1722 in Orange County, Virginia (present-day Berkeley County, West Virginia). Crawford worked as a surveyor and met George Washington, learning from Washington; he would fight in the Braddock Expedition alongside Washington and serve in his regiment during the French and Indian War. Crawford lived his life as a frontiersman, making scouting trips and fighting against the Native Americans on the frontier. At the start of the American Revolutionary War, Crawford rose a regiment for the Virginia line of the Continental Army, and Crawford served under Washington in the New York and New Jersey campaign of 1776-7 and the Philadelphia campaign in late 1777. That year, he was transferred to the West when the war with the Indians intesified, serving under Edward Hand and Lachlan McIntosh at Fort Pitt. In 1781, he retired from the army at the age of 59, but in 1782 William Irvine convinced Crawford to come out of retirement and lead an expedition against the Indians. In the Crawford Expedition, his forces were surrounded by the Indians, and Crawford was captured. He was tortured before he was burnt at the stake, with his execution being retaliation for the Gnadenhutten massacre.